Breaking Glass Ceilings: Clara Stanton Jones and the Detroit Public Library

Chancellor (Sch. of Information Studies, Syracuse Univ.; E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession) offers a rousing biography of Clara Stanton Jones (1913–2012), the first woman and first Black American to direct a major U.S. public library system and the first Black president of the American Library Association. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with Jones’s family and colleagues, Chancellor details Jones’s life and legacy, seen through the lens of Black feminist theory. Jones grew up in St. Louis; she later graduated from Spelman College in 1934 and obtained her library degree from the University of Michigan in 1938. She worked at Dillard University Library and Southern University before becoming the Detroit Public Library director in 1944. Despite opposition to her appointment, including the resignation of two commissioners and a top administrator and the withdrawal of financial support from the library Friends, Jones flourished at DPL until her retirement in 1978. Though gripping in its own right, Jones’s story is made timely by Chancellor’s pointed observations regarding the ALA’s “fictitious neutrality stance” and the profession’s continued reluctance to address racism.